


The One I Cannot Live Without

by StellarLibraryLady



Series: Star Trek Incandescent Hearts [40]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Bickering, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, Love, M/M, Squabbling, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-07-18 22:25:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16127999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarLibraryLady/pseuds/StellarLibraryLady
Summary: Despite their bickering, their love for each other shines through.





	The One I Cannot Live Without

**Author's Note:**

> In a comment for "Aftermath" Esperata quoted the saying: "You don't marry the one you want to live with, you marry the one you can't live without." That was the inspiration for this fic. So many thanks, once again, to Esperata.

They had been sitting in their quarters, reading quietly, when McCoy suddenly muttered: “You have not been reading. You’ve been staring at me. What’s on your mind, Spock? Come on, get the suspense over, so I can get back to what I’m reading here. It’s a lot more fascinating than you are.”

“Why must you always be so belligerent?”

“I’m being nice,” McCoy muttered. “You ain’t even seen belligerent yet. Or nasty.”

“Your acerbic personality is probably the main reason why there are times that I do not particularly like you, Doctor.”

“Not exactly a love song, Vulcan.”

“I am trying to tell you something important.”

“Well, it's getting lost. If you were trying to hide something important, you're doing a damned good job of it. What you've said so far hasn't been exactly flattering. You might’ve thought it was important for you to say, in the way you said it. But sometimes it’s better not to say anything at all if you cannot come up with something nice.”

“You have not let me finish.”

“If the ending’s worse than the start, I think that I don’t want to hear anymore.”

"In other words, it is wise for me to be silent from now on?"

"You got it! Now, let me get back to my reading!"

Spock crossed his arms and looked sullen.

McCoy put his book down. “Oh, hell, now you’re gonna pout. What was it you wanted to say?”

Spock uncrossed his arms. “Just that I sometimes find you aggravating and not very diplomatic in your haste to achieve your goal--”

“Not much improvement,” McCoy complained.

"You can be opinionated and unbending and--"

"Are you even listening to yourself?! Since when did you figure you could say things like this and I wouldn't get mad as hell at you?! I don't know what charm school you attended, but the material didn't soak into that dense Vulcan brain of yours!"

"And you are not giving me an opportunity to finish my argument."

"It must be one helluva conclusion!" McCoy threw his hand out in invitation. "Go ahead! Finish! But you're going to have to kick a lot of dirt on what you've already said."

"You realize, I suppose, that you make it almost impossible to love you."

"THAT'S what you wanted to tell me?!" McCoy roared with blazing eyes.

"No. And you still have not let me finish."

McCoy rolled his eyes. If Spock was covering up what he'd already said, he was also digging a new hole to bury himself.

Spock assumed that McCoy's silence was giving Spock permission to continue. "I have never met anyone quite like you. There are times when I wish I had not made your acquaintance." He paid no attention to McCoy's huff of disdain. "My life would be so much simpler without you in it. I know that I could now be with someone else who is much more pleasant and pleasing."

This tirade was beginning to hurt. McCoy wished that they were back to reading. Forget the last few minutes and go backwards in time to when they were both absorbed with their books.

"You are perhaps the least logical choice that I could have made for myself--" Spock continued in a quiet voice as his eyes burned darkly at McCoy.

McCoy didn't have the energy even to turn away.

“--but you are the one I cannot live without. Not now. Not ever. You would haunt my soul if I ever tried to walk away from you. My heart would be shattered forever,” he ended softly, but that was only because his throat felt so constricted. It did not mean that he was feeling the emotion any less. Far from it.

McCoy sucked his breath in sharply and his eyes shone with genuine surprise. “Why, Spock, that’s beautiful! I’m touched! That's, that's so sweet!”

Spock rolled his dark eyes. “I believe that I liked you better when you were cynical. You are gushing now.”

“You have been around me too long! That sounds like something that I’d say!”

Spock's eyes widened. “I have assumed your undesirable qualities?” That prospect seemed to trouble Spock.

“Long married people do, I understand. They start to sound and act alike.”

“We have not been married that long.” Spock thought for a moment and frowned. “You mean it will only get worse?”

“Hey! Why should you complain?! I’m the one who’s gonna be in danger of becoming a piss-ant and uncommunicative and arrogant--”

“Arrogant?!”

“--and judgmental and--”

“Judgmental?!” Spock sat up and set his book aside. “If you felt this way about me, why did you marry me?!”

McCoy raised an eyebrow Spock-style and gave Spock a knowing look and a wry smile. “Oh, darlin,’ if I haven’t made that perfectly clear by now, we’ll put these books away for the night and I'll explain it all over again to ya. Gladly. We’ll have us a second honeymoon, right here, right now, tonight. All night, if necessary. I'll exhaust you. But there will be no questioning from you in the morning about our relationship, 'cause you'll be happy as hell. As the song goes, you're gonna rise singing.”

Spock picked up his book and found his place back. “We have a second honeymoon every night,” he grumbled

“Hey! If you’re complaining, we don’t have to have marital relations at all tonight!” 

Spock put his book down. “I did not say that I did not wish to participate in marital relations tonight, Leonard.”

“Hey! I believe that it isn’t just up to you if we tango tonight or not! After all, you’re gonna look awfully stupid if you’re ready for action and can't find somebody interested in your awkward condition!” He gripped his book with determination. "We'll see THEN just how witty and droll that the Vulcan-with-a-problem can be when his senses are dulled by unrequited sex!"

“Now, Leonard,” Spock wheedled. “You know that you are the only one with which I wish to participate in marital relations.”

“Read your book, Vulcan.”

“I truly cannot live without you, Leonard,” Spock cajoled.

McCoy lowered his book and gave him a soft smile. “I know, darlin,’ and you always make that abundantly clear to me without saying a word,” he said softly. “How about let’s set these books aside, turn the lighting down, and just cuddle for awhile? I find that I cannot live without you, either. And I think that I just want to lie in your arms and listen to your heart beating for a long time.”

“It beats just for you, Leonard,” Spock lisped with his warm eyes twinkling at McCoy.

“I know, darlin.’ And that’s what keeps me going.”

Spock opened his arms. “Come over here and listen to my heart for awhile. Then we will go to bed and I will show you what keeps my heart beating so strongly.”

“Didn’t wanna read about Elizabethan love poetry anymore anyway,” McCoy muttered as he set his book aside and stood up to do Spock’s bidding. "Wanna inspire some of my own."

The path to Spock's arms was short, but sometimes it seemed to take so long to get to that sanctuary. But the rewards were so gratifying when McCoy did get there, that the journey was well worth the effort.

Spock's eyes glowed with anticipation, also.

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing of Star Trek, its characters, and/or its story lines.


End file.
